Friendly fire and incidents claim lives of 29 Israeli soldiers in Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
1 Jan 2024 12:39

Israeli occupation forces revealed, under the permitted to publish clause, that since the start of its forces' incursion into the Gaza Strip, 20 Israeli occupation soldiers have been killed by friendly fire.

In this image taken from video released by Israeli Occupation Forces, Thursday, November 16, 2023, Israeli occupation soldiers wind their way through a hole in a building in the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestine. (AP)

"Israel's" Channel 13 reported that 29 Israeli occupation soldiers were killed in separate incidents since the start of the Israeli ground invasion in the Gaza Strip, including 20 of which were reported to be due to "friendly fire."

Among the 20 that were recorded as "friendly fire", two soldiers were killed by Israeli fire that was "not intended for them" according to the Times of Israel.

The other nine were killed by other incidents including "accidental weapon discharges, being run over by armored vehicles, and being hit by shrapnel from controlled demolitions."

The report also underscored that an average of two to six Israeli occupation soldiers are killed on a weekly basis by friendly fire in the Gaza Strip.

It is worth noting that the report only published the number of deaths by friendly fire and failed to mention the number of Israeli occupation soldiers injured by it.

Friendly fire reports surging

Earlier this month, the Israeli occupation military stated that its troops shot and killed three captives held by the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza on December 16 during battles in al-Shujaiya after "mistakenly" identifying them as a threat.

"Immediate lessons from the event have been learned," the IOF claimed in a statement.

The occupation military identified the captives as Yotam Haim and Alon Shamriz, both taken from Kibbutz "Kfar Aza" during the Palestinian Resistance's Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, in addition to Samer el-Talalqa, who was taken from Kibbutz "Nir Am".

The spokesperson for the Israeli occupation army, Daniel Hagari, said the military "bears responsibility for everything that happened."

Late last month, a report published on the Israeli news website Haaretz discussed several incidents of "friendly fire" among Israeli occupation forces that have resulted in casualties during the ongoing ground offensive against the Gaza Strip.

The report mentioned that the Israeli occupation military claims that most of these "friendly fire" incidents occurred during joint combat between armored and infantry forces, adding that investigations are underway to draw future lessons.